Ethical Standards in Publishing
The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) is a nonprofit organization focused on promoting ethical standards in research and academic publishing. COPE supports over 12,000 members worldwide by offering guidance, tools, training materials, and educational events. COPE has established a set of core best-practice principles that apply to everyone involved in scholarly publishing, including editors, publishers, and academic institutions. These principles are designed to ensure integrity and consistency in publication practices. The guidelines referenced in this document draw on COPE resources where appropriate. COPE also assists editors in handling complex ethical issues by offering independent advice through its forum. Additionally, its case archive—containing records since 1997—allows editors to review and learn from previous cases. Other useful resources include guidance from the US Office of Research Integrity on managing allegations of scientific misconduct, as well as ethical publishing guidelines issued by the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS).
Authors are required to adhere to the ethical principles outlined in the Language Related Research Ethics Policy.
Submission Declaration
Submission of a manuscript to the Language Related Research signifies that the authors confirm the following conditions:
To ensure adherence to journal policies, submitted manuscripts may be evaluated using screening and verification tools.
Declaration of Competing Interests
Authors are required to disclose any financial or personal relationships that could potentially influence or bias their research. Such competing interests may include, but are not limited to, employment, consultancy roles, equity ownership, honoraria, paid expert testimony, patent holdings or applications, research funding, or editorial affiliations with the journal. All authors must complete the declarations tool. Authors with editorial or advisory roles within the journal must disclose this under “Other Activities” and confirm that they had no involvement in the peer-review process, which was managed independently by another editor. Authors without competing interests should select the option indicating that they have nothing to declare. The completed declaration must be uploaded as a Word document (.doc or .docx format) during the submission process. Author signatures are not required.
Funding Disclosure
Authors must identify all sources of financial support related to the research and manuscript preparation. The involvement of funding bodies in study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or submission decisions must be clearly stated. If funders had no role in these aspects, this should be explicitly indicated. Funding information should be presented in a standardized format to meet funder compliance requirements. Detailed descriptions of funding programs are unnecessary. For institutional or block funding, the name of the supporting organization should be provided. In cases where no external funding was received, authors are encouraged to include a statement indicating the absence of financial support from public, commercial, or non-profit funding agencies.
Authorship Criteria
All authors must have made significant contributions to each of the following areas:
A corresponding author should be designated to manage all communications with the journal throughout the editorial process. All authors must accept responsibility for the integrity and accuracy of the work and ensure that any concerns regarding the research are appropriately addressed.
Changes in Authorship
As a general rule, the journal does not permit changes to authorship after manuscript submission. Authors are therefore expected to carefully determine the authorship list and order prior to initial submission.
The journal’s policy regarding authorship modifications includes the following requirements:
Post-acceptance changes to authorship will only be considered under exceptional circumstances. During the review of such requests, publication may be temporarily suspended. Approved changes after publication will result in the issuance of a corrigendum, whereas unauthorized changes may lead to manuscript rejection or article retraction.
Declaration of Generative AI Use
Authors must disclose any use of generative AI or AI-assisted technologies during manuscript preparation at the time of submission.
The Language Related Research acknowledges that, when used responsibly, AI tools can enhance research efficiency and support activities such as literature synthesis, content organization, and language refinement. However, such tools must not replace human expertise, critical judgment, or scholarly responsibility and must always be used under human supervision. Authors remain fully accountable for the integrity of their work, including the accuracy, objectivity, and originality of any AI-assisted content. This responsibility includes verifying AI-generated material, ensuring transparency regarding tool usage, safeguarding data privacy and intellectual property, and complying with the terms of service of any AI tools employed. AI tools must not be listed as authors or co-authors, as authorship entails responsibilities that can only be fulfilled by humans. Any use of AI tools must be disclosed in a dedicated section placed before the reference list at the time of initial submission. A standardized declaration should describe the tool used, its purpose, and confirm that the authors reviewed and edited the content and assume full responsibility for the published work. This requirement does not apply to basic tools used solely for grammar, spelling, or reference checking.
Data Availability Statement
For manuscripts associated with a dataset, authors must specify where the data supporting the findings or analyses reported in the paper can be accessed. Where applicable, this information should include a hyperlink, DOI, or another persistent identifier linked to the dataset. Author templates are available to assist with this requirement.
Data Deposition
Authors who elect to make the underlying data publicly accessible must deposit the data in a recognized repository either prior to submission or at the time of submission. A DOI, pre-assigned DOI, or another persistent identifier for the dataset must be provided.
Use of Third-Party Materials
Authors are responsible for obtaining all necessary permissions to reuse third-party content included in their manuscripts. Limited use of brief textual excerpts and certain other materials is generally permitted for purposes such as criticism or scholarly review without the need for formal authorization. However, if an author intends to incorporate any material for which they do not hold copyright and which is not covered by such exceptions, written permission must be secured from the copyright holder prior to submission. Additional guidance is available regarding the process for requesting permission to reproduce copyrighted material.
Fabrication and Falsification
Fabrication and falsification are serious forms of research misconduct. Fabrication involves inventing data or results, while falsification refers to altering research materials, processes, or data—such as modifying or omitting information—to create a misleading outcome. Image manipulation can also fall under these categories when it distorts research findings, particularly in studies where images are primary data. However, some image editing may be acceptable or necessary, for example to highlight details or protect participant privacy. Guidelines such as the CLIP (Clinical and Laboratory Images in Publications) principles provide standards for handling and presenting images, while organizations like the Council of Science Editors and the Office of Research Integrity offer further guidance and tools for detecting inappropriate manipulation.
Journals play an important role in educating authors about proper image use and may review submitted images. Authors are often required to disclose any modifications and be prepared to provide original, unedited images if requested. Journal guidelines typically state that:
• Key elements in images must not be altered, removed, or artificially added.
• Adjustments like brightness or contrast are only acceptable if applied consistently and do not distort the original information.
• Excessive editing that highlights certain parts while downplaying others is inappropriate.
• Any significant or nonlinear changes must be clearly disclosed.
• Combining images from different sources is discouraged, but if done, it must be clearly indicated and explained.
• Authors must provide original images if concerns arise, and may be encouraged to submit them alongside edited versions.
These recommendations are based on established publishing standards and ethical guidelines aimed at ensuring the accurate and honest presentation of visual research data.
Citations
Proper citation of relevant literature is a fundamental aspect of academic publishing and a responsibility shared by authors, editors, and peer reviewers. Authors should avoid over-referencing their own work. Likewise, editors and reviewers should not request additional citations unless there is a valid academic reason. Issues such as inappropriate citation practices, including citation stacking and citation cartels have been addressed by COPE, which has issued guidance and recommendations to promote ethical citation behavior.
Peer Review and Reviewer’s Responsibilities
Peer review is a key part of academic publishing, where independent experts evaluate research to help editors decide whether it should be published. Reviewers must assess work objectively, without bias related to personal characteristics or beliefs, and avoid personal criticism. They are required to disclose any conflicts of interest and decline reviews if impartiality cannot be maintained. Reviewers should justify their evaluations clearly, identify missing references, and point out similarities with other published or submitted work. All materials received during review must remain confidential and must not be used for personal advantage. Manuscripts should not be shared or discussed with others unless necessary, and even then, the editor must be informed. Unpublished information from the manuscript cannot be used or disclosed without the author’s permission. The use of generative AI (such as ChatGPT) to write review reports is prohibited, as it may compromise confidentiality by exposing manuscript content. Editors are responsible for selecting reviewers and making final publication decisions. Editorial board members may act as reviewers but are not the only ones eligible. Any editor or board member with a conflict of interest must not participate in the review or decision process. In such cases, another editor or appointed board member will handle the submission. For special issues, guest editors may oversee peer review, but if they have a conflict of interest with a specific paper, someone else must manage its review. Final publication decisions always remain with the journal’s main editors.
Publishers’ Responsibilities
The publisher is committed to protecting editorial independence from being influenced by conflicts of interest, fear, or external pressures such as financial, political, or corporate interests. It ensures fair treatment of all authors, editors, and reviewers without discrimination based on personal identity or characteristics. Decisions about journal articles are made solely by independent editors, not by the publisher, and are based on peer review. The publisher’s role is limited to broader matters, such as evaluating whether to launch or continue journals based on long-term financial viability, and offering guidance on policies, ethical standards, and industry developments, without influencing individual publication decisions. For books, initial evaluation is conducted by in-house or external series editors, who assess relevance and academic quality with input from editorial boards and peer reviewers. The publisher then considers the commercial feasibility of the project. In edited volumes, volume editors oversee the review and selection of individual chapters, while series editors may also influence decisions through their assessment of the entire work. The publisher maintains a strict stance against abusive behavior toward staff or contributors and reserves the right to take protective action if necessary. It also manages licensing and rights for content reuse, ensuring that both the publisher and authors can prevent publication of licensed versions if there are concerns about quality or integrity. Purchased content must remain unchanged, and any partial sales must comply with copyright agreements. Finally, the publisher opposes censorship and supports freedom of expression, aiming to serve the global academic community while aligning with established ethical standards such as those promoted by COPE.
According to guidelines by COPE, notices about the retraction will be publicly linked to a retracted article(s) with the indication of Title, authors, reasons for retraction, retractor, and politely. The URL to the original article will be retained unchanged, but each page on the source PDF file will be indicated by the watermarked retraction note.
Language Related Research